ABC
Given that we lost the natural tail-end of Season 16, I suppose we’re all just grateful to have had a Season 17, however surreal, truncated, and all-over-the-place it was. (And glad too for a renewed Season 18!) In an attempt to wrap up the pandemic, as the hope of the real world finally infiltrates the timeline of those at Grey-Sloan, the season finale — just a one-hour episode — brings a couple of cute, unexpected surprises, but mostly just oddly banal normalcy.
- Couples newly engaged at the end of Season 17: 1
- Couples newly wed at the end of Season 17: 1
Pop-up tele-visits from both Koracick and Jackson were nice surprises. As Jo surges forward with her determined plot to have Luna be her daughter, both get dragged back into the mix — because in order to afford a lawyer who can actually get Jo custody despite her unexplained background check failure, she has to sell her shares of the hospital. To Koracick. (Which hilariously blows Bailey’s mind. But also means we might occasionally see him, maybe maybe?) And needing a grown-up apartment (after basically losing her own mind being forced to listen to Helm & Schmidt be Helm & Schmidt) somehow — because — everyone just rotates houses — she moves into?? Jackson’s old place. Which prompts a 15-second face-time visit from Jackson. So it’s all working out for Jo. Yay.
And it’s working out for Meredith mostly too. She even got to have that drink with Hayes. From a half-drunk bottle of — scotch? whiskey? On Christmas Eve in the attendings’ lounge. With some cute banter. There’s hope for them yet. But more important, Meredith is doing all the things that irk Bailey to no end, by cultivating change in the way the Residency Directorship is handled (which is, as she reminds Bailey — WHY Bailey hired her in the first place.) All of this centers around a long-term facility care nurse, who was hospitalized for over a month with COVID, and who ultimately ends up being rehospitalized, and needing a double-lung transplant (which Mer totally sets her minions — including but not limited to Schmidt, Helm, and Perez — to convincing Bailey to give the okay for — classic GA hilarity ensues … almost feels like normal times!) Said nurse thankfully survives. And her closing line with Meredith, ‘You’re still here?’ and Meredith’s beautiful smiling, ‘I am,’ is so deep on multiple levels. Surviving the Pandemic, keeping her faith in medicine, (the show itself surviving for another season and now indefinitely, etc.)
Maggie & Winston’s wedding gets stopped faster than Lexi Grey got killed in the first five minutes of the Season 8 finale. But it’s a legit stop. Both parental figures call it off because they want it to feel right. (Maggie’s father actually calls it ‘BROKE’ and Catherine Fox actually laughs loudly at that — it’s like two steps away from calling it ghetto. It’s hilarious.) Amelia wasn’t even there, there’s ten people in Mer’s backyard … but hey — they bust out the champagne real quick and Ellis gets cake.
They do fast forward to the ending and Maggie and Winston get a magic beach in Seattle … which looks suspiciously like COVID Beach (but this isn’t House M.D., so they haven’t all gotten COVID and are in a coma) and they have a lovely wedding, from which Mer and Teddy have to flee, to go to the double-lung transplant, which is a success. And somewhere in there — they all get vaccinated. Even Owen’s mom. (And they make a point of mentioning the waste of having to dispose of unused ones. And they wait to have the wedding until two weeks post everyone’s second jab, presumably.)
ABC
So everyone is settled out in this one. Oh wait — just kidding. Jo got Luna … by having Link faux-foster. Which he agreed to do without really consulting Amelia (which we all knew was going to end poorly. All along she’s been putting more stress and distance on the ‘I don’t want marriage and kids’ feeling …). We did get to see Amelia (through time-lapse of the months in that way that only Grey’s can do) first in her Narcotics Anonymous Zoom meeting, then at an outdoor, socially-distanced, masked in-person meeting, and that was moving. Her expressing her concerns, having the ‘diseased mind’ of an addict, etc. Richard gives her such brilliant advice and it is perhaps the most profound since Cristina’s parting words of ‘you’re the sun, Mer.’ He says that addicts often feel that their life was a mess because of addiction, and that when they get sober and clean, everything should just work. And that it’s okay for it to not work. That your life can be a mess and not work for reasons that have nothing to do with addiction and it’s okay to let it be that way. And Amelia really takes it to heart.
So on Christmas Day at Mer’s, just as Link’s about to propose for the first time, Owen hijacks his moment by pointing out that it’s snowing. And of course it is snowing. Because he’s rigged up a legit snow machine over Meredith’s bedroom window, drags the whole family out into the backyard and proposes to Teddy. And she accepts. (It almost looks like Teddy is wearing a wedding band and not an engagement ring at Maggie’s wedding … but it’s hard to tell.) And then of course, because he’s Link, he’s got four rings, so he’s got Zola, Bailey, and Ellis standing with him on the beach and he proposes to Amelia in what is arguably the third-ish best proposal in this series (because while Matthew’s — now doubled-voided — flashmob ambulance-dance proposal to April was great, nothing’s ever gonna beat brain-scans in the elevator with McDreamy) … and she just doesn’t answer. She stands there, looking bewildered and anguished. Even Zola gets the hint. So … no happy ending for them … for now. (He goes to crash at the JoJack apartment.)
BUT there is a Season 18, which means there is at least one whole season for them to attempt to sort that mess out. Or not. Maybe Amelia will continue to be Amelia … and they’ll try to co-parent Scout together and Link will bounce back with Jo … since that should have happened even when Alex was there. And then they’ll have Luna & Scout like Teddy and Owen have Leo & Allison. But all that remains to be seen, and let’s all be thankful that WE WILL SEE IT, next season!
What did you think of the season finale? Start a conversation in the comments section below.
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